US Attorney General Lynch meets with NYC LGBT students

"These are only a few examples of the Justice Department's recent prosecutions", she said.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch speaks on rising hate crime Monday morning during a visit to a Virginia mosque.

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In her speech, Lynch urged Americans to report hate crimes because "when one of us falls, we all have to step up without regard for our own safety". Lynch condemned the findings, which included a 6 percent increase in all hate crimes nationwide since previous year. "It stems from labeling someone else as different, labeling someone else as 'other, ' not realizing that we're all different", Lynch said.

"These incidents - and these statistics - should be of the deepest concern to every American". "We will be conveying the pain that it has caused to the victims of any kind of hate crime - whether it is someone who is part of the LGBT community, or Muslim American individuals, or African American. They also stain our dearest ideals; they stain our nation's very soul".

The FBI and Justice Department are responsible for investigating and prosecuting hate crimes under federal law.

The DOJ report, published on October 19, 2011, showed close to 500 reported anti-Muslim hate crime incidents in 2001, followed by a precipitous drop down to 150 anti-Muslim hate crime incidents in 2002. A CT man who fired a rifle at a mosque and a North Carolina man who ripped off a woman's hijab on an airplane are among those convicted of hate crimes in recent months.

On Tuesday, Lynch will be in New York City for a discussion with lesbian, gay and transgender youth at Harvey Milk High School and to visit the Stonewall Inn and the new Stonewall National Monument, the site of a 1969 clash that sparked the gay rights movement.

She acknowledged a trend of divisive rhetoric had made people concerned they could be in danger based on where they pray or what they look like. She asked them to defend their neighbors if the time comes.

Lynch said she endeavors to create "a smooth and seamless transition", and before Trump's inauguration, there are "a number of open investigations and open matters, and we don't know the timing of those but we will continue to work on them up to the 20th and beyond".